Lessons and takeaways from Dr. Jonathan Su's tenure as the Get-Fit Guy.
Dr. Jonathan Su says goodbye to Get-Fit Guy with 4 ways for getting the most out of your workout.
Get-Fit Guy is hosted by Dr. Jonathan Su. A transcript is available at Simplecast.
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Welcome back to Get-Fit Guy. I’m your host, Dr. Jonathan Su. Every week, I’ll share science-backed tips to help you get fit, stay fit, and optimize performance.
It’s hard to believe that it has already been a year since I took over the reins as the Get-Fit Guy. I learned a ton and certainly had a lot of fun as the host of this podcast.
At the same time, I also realize that it’s time for me to pass the reins to the next Get-Fit Guy. While I love how I can share fitness insights in the podcast format, I want to shift my focus toward creating apps or online courses that’ll help guide people through science-backed fitness routines tailored to their specific needs.
Don’t worry, because the podcast team has already found the next Get-Fit Guy and that person is more than qualified to fill this role. The best part about having a new host is getting fitness insights from a different perspective which I believe is invaluable. Our new host will start later this summer; in the meantime, you’ll hear some re-runs from the Get-Fit Guy archive to keep you active over these next few weeks.
I know some of you will miss me, but you can always visit me by going to my website at sixminutefitness.com to see what I’m up to or to drop me a message. And you’ll be hearing about my new projects when they launch here on Get-Fit Guy.
What better topic for my final episode than to distill my episodes from the last year into the 4 ways for getting the most out of your workout. Stay tuned to find out what these are and why I believe they’re critical.
The single most important thing that most people can do to get the most out of their workouts is to increase the training intensity. Japanese researcher Dr. Izumi Tabata was among the first to recognize the special benefits of high-intensity training.
While studying the workout routines of Olympic speed skaters in the mid-1990s, he was surprised to discover that those who performed four minutes of higher-intensity exercise produced better results than those who performed an hour of lower-intensity exercise.
Increasing your training intensity is simple in theory but difficult in practice. You can easily increase your training intensity by doing things like increasing walking or running speed, increasing the resistance on strength training exercises, and decreasing rest time between sets of exercises.
Increasing the training intensity is difficult in practice because you naturally want to stop and rest or catch your breath when you start feeling tired while exercising. Your body doesn’t like to do more work than it has to, and it will let you know by making you feel sore, exhausted, and consumed with the desire to quit.
That’s why the second most important thing that most people can do to get the most out of their workouts is to develop mental skills.
Staying motivated and consistent with exercise is one of the biggest obstacles most people face on their fitness journey. After all, we are humans and humans seem to be hard-wired to find the path of least resistance for just about everything.
Exercise is hard work and literally the path of most resistance, so it takes someone special to train hard and stay consistent with exercise all of the time. My favorite ways to stay motivated and consistent with exercise are through intrinsic reward statements and micro-goals.
Psychologists have found that intrinsic rewards, such as the sense of accomplishment we feel from achieving a personal goal, are more powerful motivators than external rewards like money, power, fame, or avoiding consequences. Reminding yourself of the intrinsic rewards you get from exercise will boost your motivation when it’s time to work out.
Micro-goals are exactly as they sound: smaller goals within bigger goals. Endurance athletes, like marathon runners, use micro-goals all the time by dividing the race into six smaller races that are each four miles long, with a two-mile bonus round at the end, for example.
These smaller goals are much easier for the mind to digest, and they help the runner get in the zone during a race. You may not be a marathon runner, but you can also set micro-goals to get in the zone during exercise.
Check out the episode 2 Mental Tricks to Stay Motivated and Consistent with Exercise to find out how to create intrinsic reward statements and micro-goals.
You know that you have to increase your workout intensity and you have the mental skills to do it consistently, but another problem pops up. Somewhere between roughly every 6 to 8 weeks of challenging and consistent exercise, you may start to notice one or more of the following:
These are signals that a break is needed and I recommend taking a whole week off from exercise if you’re pushing yourself on most days of the week. You would think that taking a whole week off from exercise would result in a loss of fitness, right?
Surprisingly, not only is this not true, there’re actually benefits to taking a whole week off now and then including reduced injury risk, improved fitness gains, and increased motivation to exercise.
Check out the episode Rest Week - Why Taking Breaks From Exercising is Crucial to learn more.
Finally, even a rest week every 6 to 8 weeks is not enough to keep your body injury-free and functioning optimally. For this, you’ll need preventative maintenance.
Most people know that exercise is great for the body but what most people may not realize is that exercise can also create problems for the body without a preventative maintenance program.
Just as periodic tune-ups for your car will help keep it running smoothly, weekly preventative maintenance for your body will help you feel and perform your best.
Don’t worry if any of this sounds new to you because the concept is simple and you probably already have some elements of a preventative maintenance program—such as stretching and foam rolling—as part of your fitness routine.
Check out the episode Why Your Body Needs Preventative Maintenance to find out the simple elements that go into a preventive maintenance program.
You’ve been a wonderful audience and I hope you’ve picked up a few valuable insights from me over the last year. This is Dr. Jonathan Su signing out as the Get-Fit Guy.
If you have a question for the next Get-Fit Guy, email us at getfitguy@quickanddirtytips.com or leave us a voicemail at 510-353-3104.